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A Medieval Almshouse for the Clergy: Clyst Gabriel Hospital near Exeter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Nicholas Orme
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Walter Stapledon, bishop of Exeter 1308-26, treasurer of England and victim of the downfall of Edward 11, was a notable benefactor of the Church. As well as giving generously to the rebuilding of Exeter Cathedral (where he was buried in a splendid tomb beside the high altar), he founded or planned three institutions for the clergy of his diocese: a school foundation for a tutor and twelve pupils in the hospital of St John at Exeter; a college for a chaplain and twelve scholars at Oxford (now Exeter College); and a hospital for two chaplains and twelve infirm priests at Clyst Gabriel in Bishop's Clyst, four miles east of Exeter. Unlike the college, the hospital has long since disappeared, but its records survive in unusual profusion for such a small foundation. Not only do they reveal the constitutional and financial history of the house, they also preserve the names of many of its inmates, the dates of their entry and of their deaths or departures. Clyst Gabriel possesses, in effect, one of the oldest registers of patients in an English hospital, commencing as early as 1312.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , January 1988 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

1 On Stapledon and his career, see Buck, M., Politics, Finance and the Church in the Reign of Edward II. Walter Stapledon, treasurer of England, Cambridge 1983Google Scholar.

2 Orme, N. I., Education in the West of England, 1066-1548, Exeter 1976, 48–9.Google Scholar

3 Bishop's Clyst lies on the old road from Exeter to Sidmouth, immediately east of the River Clyst. It is in two parishes: the north side of the road in Sowton, and the south side in Clyst St Mary.

4 The Register of Walter Bronescombe, Bishop of Exeter, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, F. C., London-Exeter 1889, pp. xvi-xvii, 115, 244–5.Google Scholar

5 Ibid. 51.

6 Ibid. 456.

7 Accounts of the Executors of Richard Bishop of London 1303 and… Thomas Bishop of Exeter 1310, ed. Hale, W. H. and Ellacombe, H. T. (Camden Society, NS X, 1874), 38, 44–5.Google Scholar

8 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1307-13, 175; Exeter Cathedral Archives, Dean and Chapter (hereinafter cited as D&C), 784.

9 Ibid. 1432.

10 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1307-13, 202; D&C 1435.

11 Ibid. 1932.

12 Moorman, J. R. H., Church Life in England in the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge 1955, 52–3.Google Scholar

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14 For a list, see Knowles, D. and Hadcock, R. N., Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales, 2nd edn, London 1971, 311, 313–410Google Scholar.

15 Reg. Stapeldon, 202, 104.

16 D&C 5206.

17 The Register of John de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, F. C., 3 vols, London-Exeter 1894-1889, i. 515–16; D&C 786.Google Scholar

18 The payments first appear in the stewards’ accounts for Easter term 1312, D&C 2782; the earliest surviving previous account is that of 1308, D&C 2781.

19 Reg. Stapeldon, 105.

20 Reg. Grandisson, i. 463.

21 Ibid. i. 515-16.

22 Ibid. i. 536.

23 D&C 5213.

24 There are three series of accounts in the Exeter Cathedral Archives: D&C 793/1-799 (mainly fragmentary and unfit for use), D&C 5206-5231, and Vicars Choral (hereinafter cited as VC) 3346, 22215, 22230 and 22271-8.

25 D&C 5212/6-7.

26 D&C 796.

27 E.g. D& C 791, 5206 (1312-13); 797/1, 5215 (1348-9); and 5226, V C 22230 (1463-4).

28 D& C 5215; V C 22215.

29 D&C 5223, 5214/9; VC 22271 m. 1.

30 VC 22272.

31 D&C 5212/1.

32 D&C 5212/6-7, 5212/1-3, 5213.

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34 D&C 5215.

35 D& C 5212/1; The Register of Edmund Stafford [Bishop of Exeter], ed. Randolph, F. C. Hingeston, London-Exeter 1886, 387–8Google Scholar.

36 D&C 5212/1, 5213, 5214/8, 798/1, 5218, 5223; VC 22274.

37 D& C 5206-15 passim.

38 D&C 796; VC 22271 mm. 1-3.

38 The Register of Edmund Lacy, Bishop of Exeter, i, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, F. C., London-Exeter 1909, 265Google Scholar ; Reg. Grandisson, iii. 1351.

40 Reg. Stapeldon, 103.

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48 Reg. Stapeldon, 209.

43 Ibid. 148; Reg. Grandisson, iii. 1303, 1312.

44 VC 22215.

45 VC 22271 m. 3; Reg. Stafford, 3, 112.

46 D&C 796; Reg. Stapeldon, 217; Exeter, Devon Record Office, Chanter XII (i) (The Register of George Nevill), fo. 23; D&C 5230.

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51 D&C 5215.

52 D&C 798/2; VC 22271 mm. 1-3.

53 D&C 5216.

54 Reg. Grandisson, ii. 1210-11.

55 It is suggestive that the general expenditure in the stewards’ accounts, which had once included Clyst Gabriel, drops from £32 17.1. 5d. in 1381 (D&C 2803) to £ 9 17s. 2d. in the next surviving account of 1387 (D&C 2804).

58 VC 22271 mm. 2-3.

57 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1391-5, 580; D & C 788.

58 Reg. Grandisson, iii. 1431.

59 The Register of Thomas de Brantyngham, Bishop of Exeter, ed. Hingeston-Randolph, F. C., 2 vols, London-Exeter 1901-1906, i. 150, 174.Google Scholar

60 D&C 5216.

61 Reg. Lacy, i. 292.

62 D&G 5216-5231; VC 22230, 22273-8.

63 D& G 5220. On the battle, see Storey, R. L., The End of the House of Lancaster, London 1966, 165–75Google Scholar.

64 Reg. Lacy, i. 292.

66 VC 22276.

66 VC 22271 m. 4.

67 VC 22278.

68 To his biography in Emden, A. B., A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, 3 vols, Oxford 1957-1959, i 638–9Google Scholar , add: rector of Braunton, Devon, res. by 26 Apr. 1474 (Devon Record Office, Chanter XII (ii) fo. 27), and vicar of Brixham, Devon, res. by 15 Apr. 1491 (ibid, fos 113V, 146).

69 VC 22278.

70 D& C 789. For their biographies, see , Emden, op. cit. ii. 1374–5; iii. 1947-8Google Scholar.

71 On this matter, see Orme, N. I., ‘The medieval clergy of Exeter Cathedral: I, The vicars and annuellars’, Devonshire Associations Transactions cxiii (1981), 88–9Google Scholar.

72 On Warland Hospital, see Orme, N. I., ‘Warland Hospital, Totnes, and the Trinitarian friars in Devon’, Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries, forthcomingGoogle Scholar.

73 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1494-1509, 594; D&C 2878.

74 D&C 5323. A second charter of union was also issued by Oldham on 20 May 1509 (D&C 2878), perhaps because the ownership of Warland was being disputed by its former tenants, the Trinitarian friars.

75 Valor Ecclesiasticus tempore Henrici VIII, ed. Caley, J., 6 vols, London 1810-1834, ii. 310.Google Scholar

76 VC 22071.

77 Amulree, Lord, ‘Monastic infirmaries’, in The Evolution of Hospitals in Britain, ed. Poynter, F. N. L., London 1964, 11–26Google Scholar . I am grateful to Dr M.J. Hatcher for this reference.

78 The list in Knowles and Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, 313-410, seems to include only Cricklade, Wilts. (1415); London, Whittington's (1422, but only for clerks from an adjoining college); and London, the Papey (1430).